


Stutters

by Senket



Category: Primeval
Genre: Alternate Timelines, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-22
Updated: 2010-02-22
Packaged: 2017-11-15 14:00:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/528062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Senket/pseuds/Senket
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Times a'changin'.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stutters

Things are starting to change, every week, every day, faster and faster than he can recognize- only he can't, not unless he's in one of the anomalies when they do. Helen has always been an active woman, and she has certainly not slowed down since then. Most things are small, minuscule even. Some things change once, some things transform. Abby's hair was bright red, once, before returning to whey. When Connor's fedora vanished, it never reappeared.

Stephen. Stephen was a fluctuating thing- it seemed she could never get him quite to her liking, and most of the time she could never get him back at all. He was there, he was gone, they fought, they hated each other, Helen had divorced Nick for him, Nick had divorced Helen when he found out about them, they were both living in her trap, he was gone again. He trusted Nick, he trusted Helen, he had her arrested in her sleep. No one has kicked the box and they had all made it out- her trick revealed, they never trusted Helen again Stephen stopped Nick, she died in the fire- being part of the anomaly, she existed without being alive, an oddity in time. She was alive again, Nick was dead this time- she didn't stay long enough to notice, and went on, and Stephen was dead again.

Once Nick stepped through an anomaly and returned to find his assistant there, avoiding eye contact, the muscle in his jaw tense as it was when he was upset. He wandered about confused, searching for answers in avoidant blood-shot eyes, until Abby screamed herself hoarse at him in the locker room.

He stepped through again and found himself graced quite often with strangely tender looks from the man.

The third time he had come out and the entire team fixed him with a wild light in their eyes, unmoving. He stared back, uncertain but curious, until one of them moved- Abby, then Connor, throwing themselves at him like the younglings he sometimes forgot they were.

Stephen came last, touching his face with mingled confusion and relief and tears. "I don't know how this is possible," he whispered, "but I'll be the last to complain."

"Liar," he answered on instinct, smiling uneasily- it wasn't every day one was suddenly treated to the reception of a returning dead man.

Stephen dragged him away then, away from a protesting Abby and Connor, away from a shocked Jenny, farther and farther, past a very confused James, threw him into a storage room and slammed the door behind him.

Before he knew what was happening, he found his arms full of sobbing Englishman. "Stephen?" He asked softly, rubbing his fingers against the man's neck. "Stephen. It's okay. I'm here. I'm-"

"You. You were torn apart in there. I tried to stop you but you ducked and my punch glanced and you tripped me and slammed the door before I could- oh god I still remember their sounds-so happy to be eating. I-"

"Stephen. Stephen, I'm here, now, it doesn't matter."

Silence, a sharp breath, and then he couldn't t breath couldn't think couldn't anything but kiss back, shocked and surprised and falling. He thought he'd never be able to forget when this felt like.

The next time he returned, Stephen was dead again.


End file.
